March 2006

March 04, 2006

One day before my final at Le Cordon Bleu and I have a bad case of the I-don-wanna's. Bad, bad, bad. I keep doing everything there is to do but, study. I should not be blogging right now. Okay, this will be the last thing I do and then I will study.

We have been given ten recipes to memorize and they are all delicious. Except for the braised choux which is a molded cabbage leaf stuffed with ground fat back (lard), pork fat (uh, lard, I think), and some ground pork and onions. Then it's draped in caul, weblike fat from the neck of a cow, and braised – ball o' fat with cabbage.

However, the trout with morrel stuffing, steak with truffle sauce, and lamb tien are off the hook. The chicken Basquaise and dorade wrapped in lettuce leaves are also deliceux, but tricky. And then there's this one recipe that I can't find in my notebook which is worrying me. Knowing my luck, I will propably get that one. I can't remember making it either and I have no pictures of it. Perhpas that was the day the aliens came down and abducted me from class.

I have been good about studying for the technical aspect: hollandaise sauce. I went out and bought a flat of eggs and stacks of butter last night with my cooking partner, Jamie, and we whisked away. I've never had trouble with hollandaise which is worrying me a little. Sometimes it's better to mess things up–especially delicate sauces–so that you know exactly how not to do it next time. Like the time I made a meat sauce with bones and mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery) and I caramelized it too much. When I deglazed the pan and tasted the sauce it was bitter. The color was gorgeous, the taste horrible!. Now I know just how brown you can caramelize bones/mirepoix before deglazing. Not too sure about hollandaise...

Mine turned out awesome last night (and Jamie's did too) despite the bottle of bourgogne we polished off beforehand. Who knows, maybe I've just got the hollandaise touch!?!? Maybe I will be to hollandaise what Mrs. Fields is to cookies or what Nancy is to quiches? I know, I'll make up for the recipe I can't recall with my gorgeous sauce! The judges will be so in awe of my delicate buttery hollandaise sauce that they won't even notice the un-identifiable mess beside it.

Here's my recipe and tips. I should say beforehand, that hollandaise sauce is not difficult or time consuming if you follow the precautions. The real trick is keeping it warm before serving because you cannot reheat or it splits. Bad hollandaise sauce looks like mayonnaise. It should be light in color, airy, and melt in your mouth – not gloopy, glossy, or bright yellow. Serve over eggs, or fish, or eat it right out of the bowl.

Keep your fingers crossed for me on the exam!!!! I'll let you know how it goes on Monday.
Hollandaise:
1. 4 egg yolks
2. 1 Tablespoon water for every egg yolk (4)
3. 1 stick of clarified butter or 200g
4. Salt to taste
5. 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, or to taste.
Prepartion:
1. Prepare a double boiler by filling a large wide sauté pan half way with water. Make sure it is not the type with one pot sitting snuggly onto another filled with water. You want the steam to escape around the sides of the mixing bowl. Simmer water GENTLY.
2. Make clarified butter by gently melting it in a double boiler (whichever kind you want). Once the butter melts and the whey falls to the bottom, skim off the oil. Put back into the double boiler and keep warm– very important! To test it, put your finger in. Too hot or cold to the touch and it will ruin the sauce.
3. In a stainless steel mixing bowl, that is smaller than the base of the double boiler, whisk the egg yolks and water together until frothy. Holding the bowl with one hand float it in water of the double boiler and start whisking. Whip it good! The eggs should turn a light yellow color and start to double and triple in size. Once you can begin to see the bottom of your mixing bowl while whisking then take off the heat and place on the counter with a towel around the bottom to keep it steady.
4. Drizzle warm clarified butter into the eggs while stirring rapidly with a whisk (stirring, not whipping here).
5. Add salt and lemon to taste.
6. To keep warm: place sauce in a bowl and put on a small circular roasting rack that sits just above warm water. You could use the water from the double boiler. Cover with saran wrap. Viola!

March 02, 2006

Picture by Mr. Fenwick
Recently a friend, from San Francisco Photorama, asked me what Le Cordon Bleu’s stand on the avian bird flu was. I asked the chef’s the next day at school and the dominant response I got was that they were going to keep eating poulet. This of course surprised me, because I have stopped. Of course poulet is ingrained in French culture–even the soccer team wears a rooster insignia on their jersey! Not to mention all those weather veins that nobly stand gaurd against forboding weather.
Picture by Raouljibar
Despite the emblematic coq, France, to her credit, takes great pride and pains to make sure that animals are raised in the best conditions. There are control systems in place that register each animal before slaughter and insure it’s health. The poultry business in France is the largest in Europe (900 million sold/exported) so any contamination could be disasterous.
But it would be a lie to say that the Avian bird flu has not hit France. The most recent has been a turkey from the South of France. None of the other turkeys were diagnosed with the disease on the farm and 11,000 were slaughtered anyway. There was also a case of a migratory bird found dead in a pond 6 miles outside of Paris that was confirmed with having the flu. Other recent European cases include a cat in Ruegen, Germany, wild ducks in Sweden, and birds in Italy. For the most part raised poultry flocks have not been infected, only migratory birds.
I did some research into just what are the control systems here in France. According to the New York Times (thanks Matt for the link!) the European Union approved poultry vaccination programs against avian flu for France and vaccinations immediately. This would include some of the areas in France that are the most vulnerable like Landes, a foie gras producing area, where migratory birds come through and where it’s hard to confine fowl indoors.
Loué, where the best chicken comes from (at least in my opinion), is fighting to get the vaccination so that they can continue to keep their birds outside. Many of the farmers there are outraged because they have been asked to confine their poultry: “Un bon poulet, est un poulet libre” is their current slogan. Other poultry producers are keeping their birds confined and highly advertising it, like the large poultry producer Duc, which even goes as far as to show caged birds in their ads.
Jaque Chirac is already trying to make sure that a safety net is in place and has allocated $75 million in aid to poultry farmers and has bought 30 million doses of avian flu vaccine. Even still Canada is quarantining imported fowl from France and other countries are following suit. European countries are also trying to keep domestic animals like cat’s and dogs inside and not let them move between country borders.
Besides migratory birds carrying the disease, there are other ways for it to spread that are causing paramount concern. There have been cases in Jakarta where mud from a farm that had infected birds was carried, probably on someone’s shoe, to another place and infected more. Many specialists are saying that the main concern for spreading the disease is travelers not migratory birds and the traveling of raised poultry or poultry related materials.
Right now the human infection of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, according to the World Health Organization is: 173 people infected globally, killing 93 of them.
I think the greatest concern is for Africa, India, and Egypt. In Nigeria, poultry flocks (not just wild migratory birds) have already been discovered to carry the disease. These countries don’t have the same resources to prevent and contain it. Also, poultry is a vital source of protein for them. $1.9 billion has been pledged internationally to try and fight the avian bird flu in the countries that most need it, according to the Economist.
Do I think that France is at major risk right now? No, not really. Am I personally going to eat chicken right now? No, not if I can help it. I have been eating and cooking chicken predominately in my home kitchen for a long time and I think I'm going to venture out and try some other lean options at home like fish, porc, lean cuts of beef, and vegetarian recipes intead.